Barrick Gold gets green light to resume Veladero operations

After 19 days under a suspension order, Argentine authorities let Barrick Gold Corp. resume normal operations at its Veladero gold mine in San Juan province. Barrick said it would assess the impact to Veladero production, but maintained companywide production guidance between 5 million ounces and 5.5 million ounces of gold for the year at all-in sustaining costs in the range of US$750 per gold ounce to US$790 per gold ounce.

Vale SA is looking to expand its market share in China for the supply of iron ore as it is working up distribution deals with smaller Chinese customers in the country's interior, Bloomberg News reported, citing Humberto Freitas, the miner's logistics and mineral exploration executive director.

DIVERSIFIED

* Anglo American Plc shares rallied to over £10 per share for the first time in more than a year, recovering from a record low in January, on the back of improving commodity prices and the company's debt reduction efforts, Bloomberg News reported.

BASE METALS

* Independence Group NL has launched a A$20.5 million cash bid for Mark Creasy-backed and fellow ASX-listed Windward Resources Ltd. Creasy has already given his nod to the 19-cent-per-share off-market offer for the 27.44% stake in Windward that he controls.

* Central Asia Metals Plc posted record quarterly copper production in the third quarter of 4,102 tonnes, up 38% year over year from 2,966 tonnes. Nine-month copper production, meanwhile, increased by 31% year over year to 11,010 tonnes, from 8,410 tonnes.

* Kommersantreported that Russia's Finance Ministry proposes to introduce a flat-rate tax on mineral extraction for rich ores of the Polar Division of PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel. It will increase the tax burden by 7 billion Russian rubles a year, but since September the company has benefited from the canceled export duties on platinum group metals, which totaled US$88 million in 2015.

* Antofagasta Plc reached a 36-month wage deal with unionized supervisors at its Chile-based flagship Los Pelambres copper mine, averting a possible strike. The terms of the wage deal were not disclosed.

* Nevsun Resources Ltd.'s Bisha zinc-copper-gold mine in Eritrea declared commercial production for its zinc expansion, effective Oct. 1 with the successful commissioning of a new zinc flotation plant.

PRECIOUS METALS

* Centamin Plc's preliminary total gold production for the third quarter from its Sukari gold mine in Egypt totaled 148,674 ounces, a 41% year-over-year jump from 105,413 ounces in the corresponding quarter last year and a 6% increase over the 140,306 ounces produced in the second quarter.

* Compañía de Minas Buenaventura SAA CFO Carlos Galvez believes that gold is going to continue its run on the back of strong demand from India and China, and the inability of the U.S. to start increasing interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. The company intends to begin development at its San Gabriel mine in Peru in 2017.

* Havilah Resources Ltd.'s total gold production at its Portia gold mine recently exceeded 10,000 ounces, 5,000 ounces of which is attributable to the company. The company said that it is on track to deliver about half of its 10,000-ounce hedge book at an average price of A$1,618 per ounce.

* Sibanye Gold Ltd. suspended all operations at the Cooke gold mine in Gauteng, South Africa, after a clash between two of South Africa's rival unions left two of its employees in critical condition, Reuters reported, citing a company spokesman.

* Jaguar Mining Inc. entered into an earn-in agreement allowing Avanco Resources Ltd., to earn up to a 100% interest in the former's Gurupi gold project in Brazil.

* Roxgold Inc. produced 32,987 ounces of gold in the third quarter and achieved commercial production "ahead of schedule and under budget" at its Yaramoko gold mine in Burkina Faso, effective Oct. 1. The company sold 34,594 ounces in the three-month period at an average sales price of US$1,334 per ounce.

* Kinross Gold Corp. has agreed to a new, three-year collective labor agreement with unionized employees at its Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania.

BULK COMMODITIES

* Workers at Anglo American Plc's German Creek coal mine, part of the Capcoal operation in Queensland, Australia, have written to Capricornia MP Michelle Landry for a meeting. About 80 workers are at risk of losing their jobs as part of the redundancies recently announced by the company.

* The Chamber of Minerals and Energy and the Minerals Council of Australia has launched a new website in its bid to fight against the new iron ore tax proposed by Brendon Grylls, according to The West Australian. The website claims to make people aware of the effects of the new tax.

* Ferrexpo Plc produced 2.60 million tonnes of iron pellets from own ore in the third quarter, down 7.8% compared to 2.82 million tonnes in the second quarter. Production for the first nine months of the year totaled 8.30 million tonnes, in line with the same year-ago period.

* The consortium formed by Dutch multinational Trafigura Beheer BV and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala still has not been able to acquire MMX Sudeste, a subsidiary of MMX Mineração e Metálicos SA. The initial plan was to invest 260 million reais in the next four years to take over the iron ore operations consisting of the Tico-Tico e Ipê mines in Brazil. However, the mines continue to be under an embargo by the environment ministry of Minas Gerais state, Semad, daily Valor Econômicoreported.

* Brazilian administrative tax court CARF decided to maintain a ruling against Gerdau SA unit Gerdau Aços Especiais SA in regards to taxes for the period between December 2006 and December 2007 concerning operations by a subsidiary in Hungary, where profits obtained from other countries were consolidated. Gerdau said that it would continue appealing the ruling, daily Valor Econômicoreported.

* Puls Biznesureported that in August, Poland's coal production was nearly 270,000 tonnes more than its monthly sales. Unsold coal exceeded 5.7 million tonnes, according to data from the Industrial Development Agency.

* Kazuo Tanimizu, managing executive officer of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., expressed concern about the tax hike proposal in Western Australia, saying it would present uncertainty for future investments in the mining sector and could also jeopardize Western Australia's global iron ore competitiveness, The West Australianwrote.

* Australia's biggest iron ore producers may fail to meet their full-year guidance on the back of lower-than-expected shipments in the past three months, Bloomberg News reported, referring to a note by Macquarie Group Ltd. Data from Western Australia's key iron ore terminals showed that exporters moved combined cargoes totaling about 209 million tonnes in the three months to Sept. 30, falling short of Macquarie's forecast of 216 million tonnes.

* A joint venture between state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd. and ArcelorMittal is anticipated to start producing automotive-grade steel in two years, Reuters reported, citing Indian Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma. Officials from the two companies are scheduled to meet Oct. 6 to advance discussions on a proposed 60 billion Indian rupee plant, with a projected annual steel output of 1.2 million tonnes.

* Ukraine's merchant pig iron producer Donetskstal Iron and Steel Works CJSC, idled one of its two blast furnaces, which is expected to remain shut until October-end, Metal Bulletin reported, citing industry sources.

SPECIALTY

* A review by Premier African Minerals Ltd. of immediately available tungsten rich material at its RHA tungsten operations in Zimbabwe has estimated sufficient tonnage in the open pit and underground operations to support an initial three-year operation at 39,000 tonnes per month, upon the installation of the proposed x-ray transmission system for ore sorting at the plant that is expected by the end of November.

* Anglo American unit De Beers SA sold US$485 million worth of rough diamonds during its eighth sales cycle, down from the US$639 million posted for the seventh sales cycle of 2016.

* CGN Mining Co. Ltd. entered into a mining principles agreement with CGNPC, CGNPCURC, National Atomic Co. Kazatomprom JSC and UMP, setting out key principles and terms for the parties' cooperation in fuel and mining projects. This comes after the companies inked a deal to jointly build a nuclear fuel assembly plant and mine uranium deposits in Kazakhstan in December 2015.

INDUSTRY NEWS

* Indonesian Mining Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the government is finalizing revisions to the country's mining laws, with more details on the changes expected to be released in the coming weeks. The revision could give companies up to five more years to build smelters and resume nickel ore exports, which have been banned since 2014.

* The Philippines' Environment Secretary Regina Lopez said remaining mine operators unaffected by the recently concluded mining audit in the country must prove their effectiveness in boosting socioeconomic activity in host communities before the government resumes approving new projects, BusinessWorld reported. Apart from ordering the industry-wide audit, Lopez also halted new mining applications in July.

The Daily Dose is updated as of 7 a.m. London time, and scans news sources published in Chinese, English, Indonesian, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Ukrainian. Some external links may require a subscription.